


Cropped Conversations

by Lord_KH



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Comfort, F/M, Makoto in a crop top, Romantic Friendship, coffee talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25167133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_KH/pseuds/Lord_KH
Summary: A rainy November night finds Ren's evening workout interrupted by Makoto, who needs a bit of a pep talk from her leader. Ren does his best to do so while distracted by a new addition to Makoto's wardrobe.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Niijima Makoto, Kurusu Akira/Niijima Makoto, Niijima Makoto/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 1
Kudos: 86





	Cropped Conversations

_Wednesday, 11/2/20XX, Leblanc Café, Evening…_

_*bambambambam*_

“ _Woah!_ ”

“ _Mrroww!_ ”

Ren winced as he pushed himself onto his elbows, his whole body surging with pain. As usual when the Phantom Thieves were in the midst of infiltrating a palace, Ren saw fit to work on his physical stamina as much as possible by doing chin-ups on a high support beam in his ramshackle “room” in the attic of the Leblanc café. Mid-lift he heard the startling sound of banging on the front door of the café and gasped, losing his grip and clattering a few feet to the floor. During his plunge he inadvertently took out the chair he used to reach up to the ceiling, which disturbed Morgana, his black cat companion perched on it. As expected, the cat had landed gracefully on his feet while Ren splatted hard, barely able to break his fall with his hands.

“A-are you okay!? Should I go get someone?” Morgana yelped, quickly pattering over to his fallen friend with a look of concern etched into his furry features. Ren was not sure if he was ever going to get used to the fact that his cat could emote like a human, but he was certainly grateful that Morgana was around to keep an eye on him. At least someone could ring for help should he have stupidly died; all that was hurt was Ren’s ego and maybe the small of his back. In hindsight he was lucky he didn’t collapse through the ancient wood on the floor, which could have had termite damage for all he knew.

“I’m f-fine, Morgana,” he moaned breathlessly as he struggled to his knees, back aching something fierce as he did. “I’m not going to die…At least, not right _–tssst-_ now.” As he finally got shakily to his feet, a clap of thunder rumbled through the building as rain pelted the thin paper covering on the two windows above his bed.

“Well, that’s good,” Morgana sighed, leaping up onto the nearby sofa to get a better vantage point, “I would probably make a pretty _great_ leader, but I still think you’re best suited for the job.” _Vain as always_ , Ren thought. He dusted off the black sweatpants he was wearing and cautiously moved toward the stairwell leading up to the attic when it happened again:

_*bambambambambam*_

The knocks somehow got _harder._ Who the heck was out there!?

Ren looked over at Morgana, whose lively blue eyes looked stumped. “Maybe the Chief forgot something and needs back in?” “The Chief” was Sojiro Sakura, Ren’s temporary guardian and the owner of Leblanc. He had recently become aware that Ren and his friends, including Sojiro’s adopted daughter Futaba, lived a double life as the Phantom Thieves, a group of heroes who sought to change society by using otherworldly means to force powerful people into renouncing their wicked ways. While there was currently a massive 30 million yen bounty for information on them, Sojiro had been true to his word that he wouldn’t turn them in; even if he was worried for Ren, his probation status meant that there was a serious chance he’d never leave prison should charges come to pass. He appreciated Sojiro’s support, although it had cooled their relationship almost to what it was when Ren first arrived in April: curt nods and long silences.

Nevertheless, Morgana’s theory had a hole. “Sojiro has his own key,” Ren surmised, looking down the stairwell, “He doesn’t need me to open the door. Do I have any texts?”

Morgana sidled over to the sofa’s arm and up to the table next to it that housed Ren’s TV, dinosaur gaming console and phone charger. Despite his lack of opposable digits, Morgana was clever enough to use his paws and nose to flick the phone on and maneuver through screens. “No, nothing here. You think it’s someone suspicious?” There was a mild growl in his voice as he raised himself off his haunches and into a more aggressive stance. Ren almost laughed, always amused by how feisty the cat was in spite of his small size.

“Easy, cat,” he chuckled, shrugging off his matching color warm-up jacket and running a hand through his sweaty hair, “I’ll go see what’s up. Maybe it’s Aino-san back to scoop you up, ‘Snowball!’”

Morgana hissed. “N-not funny!”

Ren laughed, if only to ease the tension slowly building up in his shoulders. Logically it probably wasn’t much beyond maybe a local bum or even the wind and rain pounding at the door, but given all that was happening around him he couldn’t be too lax. Akechi had warned him that there was a raid being planned to hit Leblanc, but the detective had assured him it wouldn’t take place for at least another two weeks. Akechi was also, by call counts, a lying bastard who was trying to set them up, so his word was as suspect as anybodys. As Ren rounded the corner of the still-lit storefront he could see a figure standing at the door, although the darkness kept it strictly a silhouette. Whoever it was they weren’t very tall, and as he got closer he could just make out a voice over the sharp downpour of rain.

“R-Ren-kun!? Oh, please still be awake…”

… _Makoto!?_ Ren rubbed his eyes, his vision a little bit blurry thanks to years of wearing his fashionable glasses, but could clearly recognize the unique eyes and turquoise pea coat of his friend and fellow Phantom Thief Makoto Niijima when he approached the window pane of the door. The look of immediate relief on her face sent a small tingle down his spine that he almost hoped was just from his fall earlier. “H-hang on!” he called out as he fumbled with the latch on the inside, operating solely on instinct. Once he got it open his senpai politely wiped her tan boots as much as she could on the mat outside, although she was _sopping_ wet. What was she doing outside, and how long had she been there?

Makoto wrapped her arms around her torso and was taking unsteady breaths; the poor girl was clearly freezing. “H-h-hey! I’m r-really sorry to-to just b-barge in like this…” She was already making a puddle just standing still, so Ren quickly ushered her towards one of the tables, wincing at the large wet footprints she was leaving on the tile. “I w-was i-in the a-area w-when it started coming down, s-s-so I c-came here, I-I just need t-to dry –“

“I-it’s no trouble, really! C’mon, sit down. I’ll get some towels.” Ren interrupted, seeing that she was clearly a little worked up. Makoto nodded and quickly took a seat at the middle booth, her maroon eyes looking depleted. Ren tried to give her a reassuring smile, which she responded to with a flash of one before returning to a steady frown as her gaze drifted off to the wall. He took the hint and scampered off behind the bar, looking for _something_ he could use. He promised towels, but he wasn’t actually sure Sojiro _kept_ towels around other than dishrags and tea towels.

After a few moments of aimless searching through cabinets and nooks Ren stood back up, laughing nervously. “S-sorry, I’ll get one from upstairs!” Makoto only hummed in response while he headed up to his room and grabbed the first thing he saw: his athletic jacket laying on the table near the banister. He nervously held it up to his face and gave it a sniff; he hadn’t done that many reps before he was interrupted and it was recently washed, but he wasn’t going to forgive himself if he let Makoto borrow a sweaty, nasty jacket. Morgana was sitting on the table as well, still looking confused.

“Makoto’s here? Is she okay?”

Ren shrugged, rubbing his messy, frizzy hair. “Dunno,” he said quietly, “Said she got caught in the rain, but I’m not sure what she’d doing in Yongen-Jaya. Last train’s in about an hour so I hope it’s nothing too serious. Hey, do me a favor and stay up here, okay?”

Morgana wrinkled his nose at that. “Why? What if it has to do with the Phantom Thieves?”

“Then you’ll be the first to know,” Ren quipped, “But please…Just this once?”

There was a bit of a stare down between the two before Morgana eventually relented. “Grr…fine. But you owe me -”

“I know, I know! Fatty tuna. Thanks, bud.” Ren said sincerely, giving him an affectionate little rub, which Morgana shrugged off as if he was annoyed. Despite his tone, Ren was confident he would stick to his word. Now armed with the jacket he took a deep breath as he made his way back downstairs. Truthfully, he had been so relieved that it wasn’t the police coming to arrest him that he had been able to maintain his cool for the moment, but as he crossed the last step onto the tile, his heart began to rev up and his leg started to tremble a bit.

This was pretty normal any time he was around Makoto, especially lately. Ren had always been quietly intimidated by the 3rd year ever since they’d first become acquainted as adversaries. Makoto, for a period, represented authority and the unfair way in which he found himself and his two Phantom Thieves companions at the time, Ryuji Sakamoto and Ann Takamaki, persecuted by the systems they participated in. It soon became clear, however, that Makoto was an unwilling participant in this cold war. Makoto wasn’t their enemy – far from it; she was just like them. She, too, was chained down by the shackles of responsibility placed on her by the adults in her life only to serve their needs. In casting them off, Ren found not just an ideological ally, but a friend who he could trust and confide in.

Even when they had a tense acquaintanceship, Ren could feel how much Makoto owned whatever space she was in. She made no bones about marching up to the rooftop to confront the three Phantom Thieves, despite the fact that for all she knew they were dangerous criminals. She similarly charged headfirst into danger when attempting to discover the location of the mobster Junya Kaneshiro, and even worked through her fear and confusion at being taken into the Metaverse with astonishing speed. By the time he finally saw her embrace her Persona, the motorbike known as Johanna, Ren was smitten.

It certainly didn’t _hurt_ that her Metaverse outfit was… _unique,_ to say the least. Whenever she became “Queen,” Makoto’s gained a hell-on-wheels biker look, like something out of a comic book. Harsh spikes decorated her shoulders and fists, along with an open iron mask that in no way concealed her identity but accentuated her crimson eyes, her most exotic feature. Not too dissimilar to Ann’s outfit, Makoto’s was skintight leather, revealing a figure that wasn’t quite trim and thin like Ann’s but more toned and full. Makoto’s typical wardrobe usually hid it underneath many layers, so Ren savored every Metaverse visit for a chance to see Makoto strut her stuff with a little bit more _–oomf-_ than usual.

His ears got hot and red just thinking about it, a bad habit that he had learned to cover up with his messy hair. He felt a bit bad any time those thoughts tripped him up; Makoto probably dressed the way she did for a reason, and thoughts like that were probably why. He respected Ann for how much she owned her beauty, but something about Makoto seemed to tickle his fancy just a bit more. ‘Hiding’ probably wasn’t the right term, but Makoto seemed to carry a quiet physical confidence that she rarely seemed to show off in the real world. Even her bathing suit was somewhat more reserved than Ann’s, although Ren still found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her then, either. She didn’t seem to notice, or at least didn’t say anything.

Of course there was more to her than just her body. For all her confidence, Makoto had the social awareness of a hornet; it was fun for Ren to take her to places like Shinjuku or an arcade and watch her extremely innocent reactions to everyday things. It was even more fun to watch her internalize and adapt to these places, becoming an expert in mere days. Once she knew her friend Eiko had a boyfriend who was a host at a club in Shinjuku, she researched and found out exactly what those kinds of people do and the potential danger Eiko was in. Ren was very proficient with his hands, and as a lifelong tinkerer he knew full well how intoxicating it could be to break something down until you figured out how it worked. Makoto appeared to be the same, something the Phantom Thief leader found irresistibly cute.

Over the last few months, that had built up into a mini-hurricane of feelings that he couldn’t even conceptualize in words to himself, least of all to Makoto. Ren was a pretty laid-back guy and was used to things happening _to_ him and dealing with it after the fact, so having these feelings and wanting to act on them felt like foreign territory. It would be one thing if Makoto confessed first, but he could never quite get a read on how she felt; given that she got embarrassed and turned red easily and was so innocent about certain things, Ren didn’t want to get the wrong idea and make her uncomfortable. The time he had spent pretending to be Makoto's boyfriend in order to get closer to Eiko was the closest he'd come to saying something, but even then he had chickened out. For her sake he held it in, but it made his normally-composed self far more jittery and nervous, something that only his most dangerous Metaverse runs could produce. 

Walking to the main room, Ren grabbed one of the tea towels he had found off the counter top and made his way to the booth where she sat shivering. “Um, so I only have tea towels, but you can take my jacket! It’s warm…” That sat for a beat while his mind figured out all possible connotations, alarming him instantly. “I-I only mean b-because it’s not wet, not-not that I, erm, warmed it up _for_ you, or something…” It was getting worse, judging by the puzzled look Makoto was giving him, so he just passed her the jacket and slid the tea towel onto the table while he took a seat on the opposite bench. Oddly, Makoto kept her soaked pea coat on and wrapped the jacket around that before folding the tea towel over the seat so she wouldn’t get it any wetter. Why didn’t she just take off the coat?

“I can put your jacket in the sink or something to help it dry,” he motioned, pointing towards the kitchen area, “Aren’t you freezing in that thing?”

Makoto looked over to where he pointed before giving him a look, a slight hint of red cropping up around her nose, matching her eyes. “Y-you know it’s _really_ not so b-bad,” she chattered through her shaking teeth, “I-It’ll dry with time!” The student council president was nothing if not a pretty convincing talker, so hearing such an obvious lie rang an alarm in Ren’s brain. He hadn’t missed the faint blush that cropped up either.

Ren attempted to break the ice, putting his hands up non-threateningly. “If you’re nervous, I only steal hearts, not coats, even nice ones!” A little clink of laughter escaped Makoto’s tightly pursed pink lips. Success!

“I’m _d-definitely_ not afraid of that,” she said in a much lighter tone, “More like…” Her eyes wandered as she placed a hand over her mouth, apparently in deep thought. As she craned her neck down to stare at the floor, Ren once again admired the unique French braid-like headband she usually sported, although her hair was so wet now that it wasn’t doing its job very well. When she looked back up, Ren could only give a bemused look as she had the same nervous frown that he usually saw any time the large gaps in her social knowledge got exposed. “You d-don’t say _anything_ , is that clear?”

Uh-oh. Queen voice. Ren sat up straight, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck perk up too. “Y-yes, ma’am!” he answered without a hint of irony in his voice. He’d seen shadows who got on Makoto’s bad side and he took only one lesson from that experience: don’t!

“- _Sigh-_ Okay, then. I’ll hold you to that…” With that, Makoto stood up and removed Ren’s jacket before beginning to unbutton her own. What could she be getting at, Ren wondered. She was wearing an all-black turtleneck, so even if it was wet it wasn’t like he would see anything. It only took a few seconds for Ren to recognize what she meant and involuntarily twitch his eyebrows up a bit in surprise.

_Holy midriff, Joker!_

Makoto was in fact wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, but it turned out to be a crop top that left a significant patch of pale skin bare above her tight black pants. Ren blinked and tried to look at her face as she slipped his jacket on but inevitably his eyes slid down to her stomach every other second. As he had noted before, her tummy wasn't as flat as Ann's but the flesh looked plenty firm. Her belly button was in a precarious position teetering halfway between being tucked into her waistband and out, which left his mind hungry for more and wanting to tug the pants down ever so slightly to – Wait, what was he _saying!?_ He coughed awkwardly in order to distract himself, turning his mouth into his fist so he was looking off to the side. When he turned back, Makoto had slunk into her seat, pulling the jacket around her even tighter as her blush got ten times worse. Considering how hot his face felt, Ren felt he wasn’t doing too good on that front either.

The silence was _deafening_ , even over the thunder. Finally, Makoto glared at him and spoke in barely above a hiss. “Okay, just…get it over with. Say what you clearly _need_ to say…”

Okay, this was probably a trick. “I-I wasn’t gonna say anything, M-Makoto, really!”

A single sharp eyebrow rose above her right eye. “Your face says different.”

Damn his face! He was scrambling now, running a hand through surprisingly damp hair. “D-does it? I-I mean, it’s _only_ because it’s just kind of, y’know…”

“It’s _new_ , okay? I’m trying…I was giving it a-a _test_ run, wearing it around just to see how it felt, then I was going to…”

“Nope, gotcha! Totally understand…”

Silence again. _Shit._ He weighed whether or not a compliment would bring him a lifetime of pain and prayed that Chihaya had blessed him with a good fortune sometime that day. “It’s, erm…It’s not a _bad_ look…” She turned her eyes toward his, a less angry but still suspicious gaze staring into his soul. Okay, making progress…

“To be honest,” she started, folding her hands over each other on the table and nervously playing with them, “I saw Ann wearing one in a magazine shoot she showed me a few weeks ago. I-I know that style is popular with girls today, so I thought that if I’m trying to finally understand my age group more, I could stand to update my wardrobe a little…Still, hard _not_ to feel like I’m totally exposed…” And _how_. It was then he noticed that she had draped her coat over one of the bar stools, where it had begun to drip.

“I-I’ll just take care of this,” he announced, getting up and snatching the coat before taking it over to the sink, where he laid it out as nice as he could. He decided to brew some coffee to help warm her up, and his position at the pot gave him yet another glimpse of her belly, this time from the side where it was covered a bit by his own jacket. She was staring off again, so he greedily took a few glances as he got some beans from the shelf and got to work. As he did that he was also starting to notice that her wet pants were pretty tightly clinging to her shapely thighs, but a burning sensation on his palm stopped him before he could look much further. Like a dummy he had held onto the pot as it started heating up, the universe’s way of telling him to lay off. He patted the stinging hand on his pants as he walked back over to the booth.

Okay, time to change the subject before he hurt himself, or Makoto, worse. She said she was “in the area,” which struck him as odd. Makoto lived near downtown, so this wasn’t exactly close to home. “So…What were you doing in Yongen?”

Makoto’s eyes shifted, her face now almost resembling a tomato. “I…I was actually coming to see you…”

Ren was sure glad he’d only had a protein drink recently, as he was sure anything else would be churning in his stomach right now. “Yeah?” he managed to say cleanly, surprising himself.

“M-mm-hmm.” Makoto took a deep breath and looked at him, her blush dying down finally. “When I got home today, Sis stopped by to get a change of clothes and…A-and I didn’t even _mean_ to start an argument, but…I-I asked her how her case against the Phantom Thieves was going and she just _snapped_. She said I was ‘obsessed’ and that I needed to mind my own business, that I was a brat...” She paused to wipe either a tear or a speck of water from her damp hair out of her eye, although given her choked response Ren could have guessed. “I-I _know_ she doesn’t believe the awful things she says but…It didn’t make it hurt any less. I was so angry th-that I just left, didn’t even grab my phone off the charger. Just hopped a train and was here before I knew it. Didn't even notice it was raining until it was too late to turn back…”

This was probably inevitable, Ren thought sadly. Makoto’s sister, Sae, was a top prosecutor assigned to a task force that had the sole job of apprehending the Phantom Thieves. It was because of that that Sae wound up being the Thieves’ next target; just a few days earlier they had begun their infiltration of Sae’s mind palace, a gaudy casino that stood as a monument to her perspective on her work. Makoto had been handling it like a champ after some initial hesitation, but even though she confessed to having known of her sister’s palace for some time and her initial intent to persuade the group to change her heart, Ren could tell this was eating at her. She didn’t talk much about it but it was pretty clear that her and her sister had drifted apart a bit, more so now as the Thieves drove an even bigger invisible wedge between the two. If she did mention her sister, it was always in conjunction with her late father in how much she admired their devotion to justice and wanted to follow that same path.

Makoto looked ready to speak again, and Ren let her. “I just keep thinking back to how I used to be. Sis is smart, she _has_ to know that she’s being used by her superiors, but she is an even worse position than me. All she ever does is try to provide, and somehow _I_ keep screwing that up for her…” When she looked up again, Ren could see her struggling to hold herself together. “Ren-kun, we _h-have_ to succeed, we _have_ to.”

“We _will_ , Makoto. That’s a promise,” Ren assured her, a confident smile befitting the leader of the Phantom Thieves grazing his lips. He was still a little nervous, but he could tell Makoto needed Joker more than she needed Ren right now. “It’s obvious to everyone that you love and care about your sister, so we’re going to do our best to make sure nothing happens to her. Remember, a lot of this was _your_ plan; you’re the smartest of us all and I _know_ if we follow it to the letter then there’s no way we can fail!”

Makoto rubbed her eyes a bit more, looking like she was past the worst of it. “It’s r-really nice to hear you say that, Ren-kun. I just want to do everything I can to help her…Even if she doesn’t understand.”

It was risky, but Ren felt maybe she needed a little reassurance about being a little sister. “It’s _not_ your fault that Sae pushes herself so hard. She’s tough and stubborn, like you, and I’m sure she just really wants to make sure you can take care of yourself. Don’t let her at her worst stop you from remembering her at her best.”

The nice speech got him a silent “Thank you” and a smile in return, and the two shared a lovely gaze before Makoto glanced over towards the prep station behind the bar.

“I-I think the coffee’s ready,” she said quietly. Somehow Ren was able to tear away from admiring her pretty face to go prepare a couple cups. Delicately and carefully like Sojiro had shown him, Ren poured the steaming dark blend into a white porcelain cup and set it at the bar before working on another. Makoto must have really wanted some because she got up from the booth and went to the counter to take a seat at the bar. Ren noticed that she usually took her coffee with sugar, but she took a first sip straight, her face lighting up once it touched her lips.

“H-hot!” she giggled a little, getting a laugh out of Ren too.

“That’s the idea!”

Makoto blew on the steaming cup a little to cool it off before taking another drink while Ren sampled his own work. Once she set her mug down Ren was fixated on her mouth, where the coffee had made a little brown ring right on the top of her upper lip, blending together with the soft pink lip balm she favored. Was there a part of her that wasn’t stunning?

“I’m impressed, Ren-kun!” she exclaimed, looking up with awe, “That is _really_ good. Boss must be a great teacher!”

Aw sheesh. He cooly ran a hand through his hair as he attempted to shrug off her praise. “It’s all in the ingredients; you can’t go wrong with Jamaican Blue Mountain.”

“Jamaica, huh?” Makoto grinned a little as she rested her elbow on the bar.

“Yep. The Blue Mountains of Jamaica have a unique climate and volcanic soil advantageous for growing high quality beans.”

Makoto blinked upon hearing the carefully coached definition, a quizzical look on her face. “Did you…Read that off a label or something? That was… _highly_ specific.”

Ren blushed again, realizing he recited almost word for word what he had researched after Sojiro gave him a brief primer. “U-uh, yeah, something like that…Sojiro expects you to know this stuff before you serve it, y’know? If I served a bad cup I’d be out on the streets.”

The laugh that followed was like honey. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The teens drank their coffee in silence for a minute. Ren would have gladly taken a quiet victory lap given the gifts he had been given that night, but something still wasn’t sitting right with him. Makoto left her house because of a fight with Sae, sure enough, but why did she come all the way out to Yongen? He was literally the farthest out she could go to for support. He had a theory on that, of course, but that was _surely_ too good to be true. Still, his curiosity got the best of him again, overriding his fears.

“Um, so, can I ask you something, Makoto?” She responded with a hum as she was mid-drink. “Of everyone, I probably live the farthest from you. Why come all the way out here? And why not just call”

Another tinge of red painted her cheeks, causing Ren’s heart to race. Her hands fumbled around again as she thought about her response. “T-to tell you the truth, I’m not _entirely_ sure myself. B-but if I had to hazard a guess…” She smiled, a beautiful one that radiated through her whole person. “It’s because you’re _so_ reliable. There’s been a lot of times this year where I feel like I would have gotten stuck in the same old cycle if you weren’t there to pull me up for air. I-I feel like I can tell you anything, and no matter what it is, you’ll always be able to remind me that…it’ll be _okay…”_

Was this what floating on air felt like? Ren couldn’t feel the ground below him and he felt if took a step, a glance, a _breath_ in the wrong direction he would just plummet to his doom. “M-Makoto…” He wanted to say more, _much_ more, but the coffee coating his throat seemed to immolate any word that worked its way up. Makoto must have sensed that it was getting a little too intense as well, for she suddenly got up and began to remove Ren’s jacket.

“U-um, I just realized that it’s getting really late, and the last train w-will be coming up soon, so I better get going…I-I’ll need my coat…” Makoto said bashfully, placing the athletic jacket on the bar stool and walking over to where the entrance to the cleanup area was, clutching at her stomach as if to hide it. Ren nodded and stumbled over, nearly tripping as he quickly scooped up the article of clothing. It was still wet, but at least the dripping had stopped. He went to hand it to her, but yanked it back before she could grab it. Ignoring her glare, Ren could feel the inner rebel in him start to stir, Arsene working overtime to deliver a message straight from the bottom of his soul.

**_Now or Never_ **

“Y-you look amazing in that - !” Arsense really must have taken complete control as Ren felt his previous fear magically begin to fade in favor of a full-bore confidence.

Makoto, for her part, stared back with her mouth slightly agape, although the color sweeping through her face, neck and ears said she wasn’t likely offended. “R-really!?”

“Yeah,” Ren answered, taking a step closer to her, coat still folded over his forearm. “I-I think you should stick with it…” There it was.

While she contemplated what he said, Makoto removed her arms and clasped her hands together just below her waist. Ren took a healthy drink of the sight before she started speaking again softly, like she was telling a secret. “W-well, as it t-turns out, I am f-fairly interested in seeing what this would look like if paired with a skirt. U-um…if you’re not _busy_ tomorrow night, maybe I could…get your opinion? Over coffee as well?” Ren wasn’t sure he had ever said “Yes” to something faster in his life.

“O-okay then…Guess I’ll see you, erm, tomorrow, then!” She placed her hand out, to which Ren absent mindedly passed her the coat. She slid her left arm in the sleeve before looking down at her stomach, then up to Ren, then back at the coat. Somehow her blush got worse as she removed her arm and slung the coat over her shoulder, allowing Ren to stare at the generous view of her lower back offered by the shirt as she walked to the front door. He followed close behind, only ripping his eyes away at the sound of the bell above the door clanging. He grabbed the umbrella he usually left by the door and handed it off to her, which she accepted with yet another smoldering smile. Before she could cross the threshold she turned to face him, a gentle chuckle coming from her throat.

“Sooo…I suppose this is goodnight.” She commented, brushing a bit of her drying hair behind her ear.

“Suppose so.” Cool as a cucumber, Ren thought.

“Thank you for the chat…and the coffee…and the, erm, _feedback_ ,” Makoto sighed, although her smile never wavered as she motioned to her shirt.

“Anytime.” Ren felt if he said more than two words more bold and liberating but stupid thoughts may come tumbling out. Best not to push his luck any further.

Makoto gave a small bow and turned to leave, but not before whirling around and placing her hand a on a stunned Ren’s shoulder. She leaned up as Ren felt the gentle caress of her lips a little below his eye. They lingered for a moment, staining his cheek pink, before he felt hot breath at his ear. “ _Let’s just keep this between us, okay?”_

Ren stood motionless as Makoto sauntered off into the rain, now diminished to just a drizzle, and opened up the umbrella. He kept watching as she moved up the alley and took a left toward the train station. He wanted to take a breath but his heart was in his throat, and he was sincerely afraid it might slide out if he did. Still, the shiver in his leg had traveled into his gut and was giving him butterflies like he had never felt before; he was going to have to vent somehow.

There was still plenty of thunder and Yongen-Jaya was a sleepy neighborhood even during the day, but even the Gods taking their eternal slumber could hear the racket coming from the doorway of the Leblanc café:

_“ **All** **right**!”_

**Author's Note:**

> Notes for story:
> 
> -Hope you enjoyed this one! A little longer but also a little steamier uwu
> 
> -The idea came to me in a dream: what if Makoto was secretly wearing a crop top underneath her pea coat and *nobody* knew? Stupid? Yes. But I like what came from it! Sue me :p (Atlus/Sega please don't sue it's a work of fiction you said so yourself at the beginning!)


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